I have to tell you, this has been a chore, recording this vacation. I know that I will be glad once it's done, and that I will have it forever, but it's really hard to label and organize the pics, and remember all the stuff you want to record. By this day, I was pretty tired! I had been invigorated and had an amazing time on the tour with Hugh, but trying to see everything you want to see in a ten day trip means you are perpetually running, running, running. The bottom line is that you will sleep when you get home, you only have so much time to see and do what you want!
So, this day was for me to explore on my own in Inverness. I had contemplated going on another tour up to Loch Ness and doing that whole business, but it would have made money too tight the rest of the trip, and of the places I've been out of my country so far, I've a feeling I've not seen the last of Scotland!
This days pictures start with a detailed view of the hostel where I stayed. It was a new experience for me, but I cannot say enough about the hostel! I am sure they are not all clean and friendly and uncrowded and stuff, but I am so glad I had this experience and it sure was when I was there, so I wanted to let everyone know about it! You hear horror stories about hostels, and there are even horror movies about them, but this was just great!
Then there are pictures of my short walk into the city. I love the architecture here! The houses were so pretty. I even picked out the house I want when I go back to live. Hey, a girl's got to dream! As I came down the hill into the town, going what was sort of a back way thinking about the 'front" of the town being that which faces the train station, and there's this charming little farmers/street market. There are all sorts of people out there selling their wares and displaying things. The first booth that really caught my eye was for a group of people seeking to preserve and help out prey birds. They had three absolutely stunning owls on display. I LOVED the sign that said, in big red letters "BIRDS OF PREY, PLEASE KEEP YOUR DOG AWAY". I thought of several smallish dogs I'd seen and had to take pictures of not only the birds, but the signs and the men that were there. The humor encountered in Ireland and Scotland is constant, and often subtle = )
I HAD to go into the McDonald's I went by, so I could see a menu. I saw it and had to take a picture, so there's also a picture of that...then, Inverness has close's too, which fascinate me, although they do tend to me much shorter and smaller than those in Edinburgh. On to Inverness castle. It's still a working building, so I didn't get to go inside, but it had been recently renovated and it and grounds were gorgeous! As I was walking around the castle, I found something very funny. Right near a circular parapet that looked down on Inverness below is bolted a sign that says "Fire assembly point". Which is great, except that it points to this small, circular alcove that's probably three feet in diameter, then plunges straight down about thirty feet to the pavement below. WTF?!? So, you get out of the building that's on fire....to stand against the way or jump over the side and plunge to your death below?!? This, too, made me giggle. I met a very friendly chap and his wife. They were separated when he talked to me, but he introduced me to her, and he is the one that took the picture of me next to the "fire assembly point". heh. He laughed when I pointed it out to him, too....
The entire time I was in Ireland and Scotland, over ten days at this point, I saw ONE, single solitary paper towel dispenser, and it was in the toilets that are between the castle at Inverness and the Inverness museum. All the other bathrooms I had encountered had those dyson blow yer hands thingies. So, it warranted a picture.
The Inverness museum was really neat. It had a lot of interactivity in it, with things you could touch and feel to get a sense of the history. I LOVE stuff like this! Things from the Bronze Age, the Picts, rudimentary tools, stuff on Gaelic language, all sorts of things for kids. It was really neat to root around in there. I walked down to the river, saw some churches along there, went into a couple of whiskey and other shops, saw the tourist trappy ones, and yet, appreciated that they were there. I went up a street to a graveyard that seemed to be the graveyard of Frasers! It seemed to me that at least a third of this graveyard had Fraser family members....who knew?
I encountered the most awesome book store ever. Called Leakey's Second Hand Book Shop, it struck me as EXACTLY the way a book shop should look. It's in a building that was formerly a church, and it is LITERALLY books and nothing but books, floor to ceiling, stacked anywhere there is a spare space, with a desk and stove in the center, and one of the former church lofts is a small cafe'. I had soup here that was amazing, they also serve pies and deserts...and tea, of course. One of my favorite places in Inverness, for sure. I could have gotten lost in there for HOURS! It actually reminded me of the Trinity University in Dublin where they have the Book of Kells. There is a room of floor to ceiling books there. The same sort of reverence for knowledge is felt in Leakey's. Seriously.
While I was wandering around the the graveyard, I went around a corner and saw two homeless men, enjoying the sunshine and probably enjoying not being harassed. They both appeared to be sleeping. No matter how touristy the town, every place has people that are less fortunate, and this was a poignant reminder.
I made my way back to the hostel as the sun dipped lower in the sky. The houses were just as beautiful on the way back. I spent my last evening writing, catching up, repacking, thinking about the journey home and tomorrow, catching up on email, putting out fires back home, and mourning with a deep and melancholy sadness that my time was coming to an end. When I went to France, I experienced it knowing I would likely never go back. With Scotland, it's more like "Until we meet again, my friend...." Call it a hunch....
~Peace
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